Business Case Studies & Business Publications

US Migration in Four Acts

Debaere, Peter

Case

US Migration in Four Acts

Debaere, Peter

GEM-0214 | Published February 22, 2023 | 16 pages Case

Collection: Darden School of Business

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Immigration is a powerful force shaping a country’s population, and a nation’s immigration policy often reveals who is welcome and who is not. “US Migration in Four Acts” offers an overview of migration to the United States and focuses especially on two major laws that have defined US migration policy. First, the 1924 Johnson-Reed Act became law toward the end of the mass migration that began in the 19th century. It imposed different immigration quotas for individual countries, restricted immigration from southern and eastern Europe, and, in effect, excluded it from Asia, Africa, and the Middle East. Second, the 1965 Immigration and Nationality Act, which has in essence remained unchanged, sought to impose a global cap on immigration and more uniform maximum quotas for individual countries. The case puts migration policies in the historical context of evolving US society, welfare policies, and race relations. It also offers theoretical approaches and models of immigration to assess those policies. At the Darden School of Business, this case is taught in the last module of the elective course on globalization, “Managing International Trade and Investment.”